Sweat & Smiles: Making the Difficult and Sometimes Painful Decisions that Can Result in Perfect Pictures

Social media can sometimes make us feel less than; especially when you view the thousands of posts, pages, and profiles of fitness professionals. You see the posed stances, the fancy yoga moves, and the veins bursting during a tough lift and you feel so far removed from it that you don't even want to start the journey to get there.

I get it, I've been there. I was a person that posted the fancy yoga moves that I can't physically do right now (not yet, at least).

I took this photo after hiking to The Overlook at Seneca Rocks and it really got me thinking about what you do not see in the photos ... or the posts, pages and profiles. You don't see the hard days in photos. You don't see the work, the pain, or the baggage that comes with the cool picture; but it's the hard stuff: the work, the pain, and the baggage that gets you from one beautiful photo to the next.

This photo was taken at the top of a 1.5-mile mountain. You see this, you see me carrying my toddler, and you know that I'm a personal trainer (and you probably think I work out a lot more than I actually do).

Here is what you don't see: multiple stops, my 182 heartrate, the churning stomach, the burning lungs, and all. of. the. breaks. It was so hard. My friends were offering to carry Cannon for me and I was deciding between letting them give it a try and feeling like I couldn't put that on to someone else.

Each time I needed to stop I went through an entire circle of thoughts and feelings; first I would be relieved to rest my legs and catch my breath; then I would consider letting someone else carry him for awhile; then discouraged. I was mad that it was so hard. I was annoyed that it used to be so much easier. I felt less than because there were people (even other mothers with packs) not struggling like I was.

Then I would make a decision. I decided that I wanted to get better at this. I wanted to finish. I wanted to get to the point that the way up feels like the end picture looks.

That is the secret. The decision. Not one person you see in a photo started there, and their lives in between those photos are messy, just like yours. The fancy yoga moves you see are of things people practiced for months, if not years. That's not where they started, that's just where they are now. As they start to practice the next move you won't see the videos of the falls, but they are happening. They'll be frustrated, they'll be discouraged, and they'll even see someone else's video who makes it look so easy. And then they'll make a decision. The only difference is the decision.

We're told not to compare ourselves to others but I think we're still missing a couple steps. We should be celebrating each other and above all else, we should be motivated by each other. We are human, we're not so far removed from each other. We stand in different parts of our journeys but we stand on the same ground.

We post photos and videos of our lives, the good stuff, the beautiful stuff, the cool stuff but it's the hard stuff that gets us from one beautiful shot to the next. It's the hard stuff that we've all got in common.

The next time you are scrolling a fitness professional's photos wondering what they've got that you don't, the answer is nothing. They aren't equipped with more motivation than you. They were never given a secret formula or a magic pill. The only difference, the only secret, is that they learned the decision is theirs.

You are exactly where you need to be, so start there. Start now. Decide to be exactly who you want to be and decide to go exactly where you want to go. The decision is yours.